Tough economic decisions ahead warns IFS director

AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would face tough economic choices once North Sea oil runs out, the head of an influential economic think-tank told members of the Lords yesterday.

But Paul Johnson, the director of the ­Institute for Fiscal Studies, also told peers on the Lords Economic Affairs Committee that Scotland would be better off in year one of independence because it would take its share of oil and gas revenues.

Mr Johnson was speaking to the committee after the IFS published its first report into the economics of independence.

He agreed with the committee chairman Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market that Scotland had a problem with Gross National Product (GNP) as opposed to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is lower than the rest of the UK.